WASHINGTON: The world of energy and entrepreneurship is crackling with electric anticipation this week after an India-born scientist-CEO provided a sneak peek over the weekend at a clean and efficient model of power generation-in-a-box that could eliminate the traditional grid

and challenge monopolies. Supporters are claiming KR Sridhar’s "Bloom box," scheduled for a big- splash unveiling in Silivon Valley on Wednesday, could be the Holy Grail of the world’s energy quest; and even skeptics agree that it is a unique "power-plant-in-a-box." What acres of power grid can generate, Sridhar’s Bloom Box can crank out in a fraction of the footprint -- in a squeaky clean manner too.

It is already being done -- on the campuses of Google and eBay among others. FedEx, Wal-Mart and Staples are among a score of Fortune 100 companies that have signed up as clients. Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, among those who endorse the technology, is on the Board of Directors of Sridhar’s Bloom Energy, an eight-year old stealth start-up that raised more than $ 400 million from Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists at a time the region’s economy was in a tail- spin.

At its heart, Sridhar’s Bloom Box claims to be a game-changing fuel cell device that consists of a stack of ceramic disks coated with secret green and black "inks." The disks are separated by cheap metal plates. Stacking the ceramic disks into a bread loaf-sized unit, says Sridhar, can produce one kilowatt of electricity, enough to power an American home – or four Indian homes. The unit can be scaled up, installed anywhere, and be connected to an electrical grid just like you would connect your PC to the Internet. Hydrocarbons such as natural gas or biofuel (stored separately) are pumped into the Bloom Box to produce clean, scaled-up, and reliable

electricity. The company says the unit does not vibrate, emits no sound, and has no smell, although Sridhar admits to some initial, but minor, glitches at some installations.

A hoax it is not, although some are suggesting there is a lot of hype around the launch -- somewhat like with that of the Segway transporter that was much bally-hooed but did not live up to its billing. As with Segway, the big catch right now is cost. Large-sized Bloom Boxes of the kind installed at some Silicon Valley campuses costs around $ 700,000 to $ 800,000. Sridhar estimates that a Bloom Box for the residential market could be out within a decade for as little as $3,000 to produce electricity 24/7/365. "In five to ten years, we would like to be in every home," Sridhar told CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday night.

But Silicon Valley, whose major venture capitalist Kleiner Perkins’ bankrolled Bloom Energy, is endorsing the technology. EBay said it has already saved $100,000 in electricity costs since its 5 boxes were installed nine months ago. It even claims that the Bloom boxes generate more power than the 3,000 solar panels at its headquarters. Google has a 400 kilowatt installation from Bloom at its Mountain View headquarters. California’s governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be at the launch, which is to take place on the eBay campus.

The man at the center of all the excitement is Dr KR Sridhar, 49, who, prior to founding Bloom Energy, was a professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering as well as director of the Space Technologies Laboratory (STL) at the University of Arizona. He is also, literally, a rocket scientist, having served as an advisor to NASA in the areas of nanotechnology and planetary missions. Sridhar initially developed the idea behind the Bloom Box while working with NASA, as a means of producing oxygen for astronauts landing on Mars.

Dr Sridhar received his Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Madras, India, and moved to in the 1980s to the US, where he earned an MS in Nuclear Engineering and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, home to such start ups as Netscape.

9) Patient : "What are the chances of my recovering doctor?" Doctor : "One hundred percent. Medical records show that nine out of ten people die of the disease you have. Yours is the tenth case I've treated. The others all died".

10) Teacher : " Can anybody give an example of COINCIDENCE?" One Student : "Sir, my Mother and Father got married on the same day and at the same time."

11) Teacher : " George Washington not only chopped down his father's Cherry tree, but also admitted doing it. Now do you know why his father didn't punish him ?" One Student: " Because George still had the axe in is hand."

Bandana, a large often colorfully patterned handkerchief, is derived from the Hindustani 'bandhan' which signifies a primitive method of obtaining an effect in dyeing by typing up cloth in many places to form required patterns. The tying does not let the colors run into the patterns. The word may also have been derived from the Hindi word from 'bandhna', which means to tie or from the Sanskrit word 'badhnAti', meaning he ties.

The name 'Asia' translates to mean "the land of the sunrise". The word is said to have been derived from Akkad, meaning "to go out, to rise", with respect to the rising of the sun.

"Navigation" comes from the Sanskrit word "navgatih" meaning "nine motions" referring to the 9 transiting planets (excluding the outer planets), which were apparently used for navigation during the early times in India.

The Arabic script, the second most used in the world, evolved from Nabataean Aramaic script. Aramaic was the language in which Jesus preached.

Bihari is not a constitutionally recognized language of India. Even in Bihar, Hindi is the language used for educational and official matters. Bihari is actually the name of a group of three related languages—Bhojpuri, Maithili, and Magahi—spoken mainly in northeastern India in Bihar.

1650 is the approximate number of dialects in India. 18 languages are officially recognized by the Constitution of India. Bengali is the highest spoken Indian language in the world.

The Tab key has its origins in days when typists wanted to type a table. They would end up wasting time through a lot of repetitive usage of the space bar and backspace key. To simplify this a bar was placed in the mechanism with a moveable lever for every position across the page. Thus evolved the tab key!

Similar to Nostradamus in Europe, Sri Potluri Veerabrahmendra Swami composed "Kalagnanam" in Telugu, which recorded events of the past, present, and future!

The Punjabi language has two official scripts, Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi. Gurmukhi is used mainly in India, and Shahmukhi is used mainly in Pakistan.

Shudraka's "Mriccha Katika" was one of the earliest known Sanskrit plays in the post-Vedic Sanskrit age. It was remade into a 1984 Hindi movie called "Utsav" by Girish Karnad.

When a new Plan was made at the top management level, it was - fairly enough -- decided to get feedback and comments on it from the entire organization, bottom-up. So the supervisors asked the shop-floor guys what they thought of it.

"It's a load of shit and it stinks!" the employees said.

And the Supervisors went unto their Department Heads and said "It's a Pail of Dung, and none may abide the Odor thereof."

And the Department Heads went to their Managers, and said to them

"It is a Container of Excrement, and it is very strong, such that none may abide by it."

And the Managers went to their Director and said "It is a Vessel of Fertilizer, and none may abide its Strength."

And the Director went to the Vice President and said "It contains that which aids Plant Growth, and it is very Strong."

And the Vice President went to the Executive Vice President and said "It promotes Growth, and it is very Powerful."

And the Executive Vice President went to the President and said "This Powerful New Plan will actively promote the Growth and Efficiency of the System."

A butcher watching over his shop is really surprised when he sees a dog coming inside the shop. He shoos him away. But later, the dog is back again. So, he goes over to the dog and notices it has a note in its mouth.

He takes the note and it reads "Can I have 12 sausages and a leg of lamb, please". The dog has money in its mouth, as well. The butcher looks inside and, there is a ten dollar note there. So he takes the money and puts the sausages and lamb in a bag, placing it in the dog's mouth.

The butcher is so impressed, and since it's about closing time, he decides to shut the shop and follow the dog. So off he goes. The dog is walking down the street, when it comes to a level crossing; the dog puts down the bag, jumps up and presses the button. Then it waits patiently, bag in mouth, for the lights to turn. They do, and it walks across the road, with the butcher following him all the way.

The dog then comes to a bus stop, and starts looking at the timetable. The butcher is in awe as the dog stops a bus by pulling its left leg up and gets in it. The butcher follows the dog into the bus. Then the dog shows a ticket which is tied to its belt to the bus conductor. The butcher is nearly fainting at this sight, so are the other passengers in the bus. The dog then sits near the driver's seat looking outside waiting for the bus stop to come. As soon as the stop is in sight, the dog stands and wags its tail to inform the conductor. Then, without waiting for the bus to stop completely, it jumps out of the bus and runs to a house very close to the stop. It opens the big Iron Gate and rushes inside towards the door.

As it approaches the wooden door, the dog suddenly changes its mind and heads towards the garden. It goes to the window, and beats its head against it several times, walks back, jumps off, and waits at the door.

The butcher watches as a big guy opens the door, and starts abusing the dog, kicking him and punching him, and swearing at him.

The butcher surprised with this, runs up, and stops the guy. "What in heaven's name are you doing? The dog is a genius. He could be on TV, for the life of me!" to which the Guy responds: "You call this clever? This is the second time this week that this stupid dog's forgotten his key."

*Moral of the story: You may continue to exceed onlooker's expectations but shall always fall short of the boss' expectations. It's dog's life after all...*

One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry.

He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, "How much do I owe you?"

"You don't owe me anything," she replied "Mother has taught us never to accept payment for a kindness." He said... "Then I thank you from my heart."

As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt; stronger physically,but his faith in God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit.

Years later that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of thetown she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room. Dressed in his doctor's gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. >From that day he gave special attention to the case.

After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the businessoffice to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it,then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, forshe was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally, she looked, and something caught ; her attention on the side as She read these words.....

"Paid in full with one glass of milk." (Signed) Dr. Howard Kelly.

Tears of joy flooded her eyes as her happy heart prayed: "Thank You,GOD, that Your love has spread abroad through human hearts and hands."

"THE WORLD IS CREATED BY OUR OWN MINDS. WHAT WE THINK, WE SEE OUTSIDE".

How do you recognize a Sardar in School, he is the one who erases the books when the teacher erases the board.

Once a Sardhar was waking he had a gloves on one hand and not on other so the man asked him why did he do so. He Replied that the weather forecast announced that on one hand it would be cold and on the other hand it would be hot.

A Sardar is in a bar and his cellular phone rings. He picks it up and says " Hello, how did you know I was here?"

There were 3 friends in an office. One was Tamil, one was Bengali and third was Sardar. They were past friends and used to eat their tiffins together. Once the Tamil said, "I just hate eating Idli everyday, if i find it again tomorrow i'm going to commit suicide" Bengali says "I hate Fish everyday, if i find it again i will also go to death." Panjabi says " Yes friends, i also want to get rid of Makai Di Roti. If i get it again in tiffin I'm going to join you for death."

Next day everybody find Same tiffin again and all of them go to the Office balcony and jump to death. After 6 months their wives meet and tamil one says. "It was too sad, if he had told me once that he wanted change in tiffin i would have done it." Bengali says the same.

Punjabi says " It's ok with both of you but My husband used to pack his tiffin himself......"

Sardarji bought a brand new Maruti and decided to drive down from Amritsar, where he lived, to Jalandar to meet his friend. He reached there in a few hours. After spending a few days there, he decided to return, and called up his mother to expect him in the evening. But he didn't reach in the evening and not the next day either. When he finally reached home on the third day, his distraught mother ran and asked him " Arre Puttar, ki hoya?" (What Happened, My Son?)

The Sardarji got out, obviously very tired from a long journey, and said, "Oy, ye Marutti wale pagal hain, agge jaane waaste chaar gear banaate hain, aur pichche jaane waaste sirf ik?" (These Maruti Car people are crazy! They have four gears for going forward, but only one for going back!)

Santa Singh decided to start a chicken farm so he bought a hundred chickens to begin with. A month later he returned to the dealer for another hundred chickens because all of the first lot had died.

A month later he was back at the dealer for another hundred chickens for the second lot had also died. 'But I think I know where I'm going wrong,' said Santa, 'I think I'm planting them too deep.'

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